An orangutan has apparently learned to treat its wounds with medicines from a tropical plant – the most recent example of some animals attempting to ease their ailments with remedies present in nature, scientists said Thursday.
Scientists observed Rakus plucking and chewing the leaves of a medicinal plant utilized by people throughout Southeast Asia to treat pain and inflammation. The adult male orangutan then used his fingers to use plant sap to the injury on his right cheek.
According to a brand new study published in Scientific Reports, he then pressed the chewed plant to cover the open wound like a makeshift bandage.
Previous research has documented several species of great apes searching the forests for drugs to treat themselves, but scientists haven’t yet observed an animal treating itself in this fashion.
“This is the primary time we’ve observed a wild animal applying a reasonably potent medicinal plant on to a wound,” said co-author Isabelle Laumer, a biologist on the Institute for Animal Behavior. Max Planck in Konstanz, Germany.
The orangutan’s intriguing behavior was recorded in 2022 by Ulil Azhari, co-author and field researcher on the Suaq project in Medan, Indonesia.
Photos show that the animal’s wound healed inside a month with none problems.
Scientists have been observing orangutans in Indonesia’s Gunung Leuser National Park since 1994, but had not observed this behavior before.
“This is an isolated observation,” said Emory University biologist Jacobus de Roode, who was not involved within the study. “But we often learn about new behaviors by starting with a single observation.”
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“Most likely it is self-medication,” de Roode said, adding that the orangutan only applied the plant to the wound and never to a different a part of its body.
It’s possible Rakus learned the technique from other orangutans living outside the park, away from scientists’ each day observations, said co-author Caroline Schuppli of Max Planck.
Rakus was born and lived as a young man outside the study area. Scientists imagine the orangutan was injured in a fight with one other animal. It will not be known whether Rakus has previously treated other injuries.
Scientists have previously recorded that other primates used the plants for healing.
The huge, mysterious extinct Chinese monkey “Giganto” was a cousin of the orangutan
The huge, mysterious extinct Chinese monkey “Giganto” was a cousin of the orangutan
Bornean orangutans rubbed themselves with the juices of medicinal plants, perhaps to alleviate body pain or ward off parasites.
In many places, chimpanzees have been observed chewing bitter-tasting plant shoots to appease their stomachs. Gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos swallow some rough leaves whole to eliminate stomach parasites.
“If this behavior occurs in some of our closest living relatives, what might it tell us about the early evolution of medicine?” said Tara Stoinski, president and chief scientific officer of the nonprofit Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, which was not involved within the study.
